Meyerhoff Alums Featured in “Where Are They Now”

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Meyerhoff Scholars Program boasts more than 800 graduates, many of whom have gone on to pursue careers as scientists, researchers, engineers and doctors. In a story entitled “Where Are They Now?” in the August issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, the magazine highlights the successes of six Meyerhoff alumni.

“The true strength of the Meyerhoff program is that we identify students who have a fire in the belly for sicence, who can’t see themselves doing anything else, who have a passion for inquiry and discovery,” the program’s director, Keith Harmon, told Diverse.

Among the alumni noted in the story:

Isaac Kinde ’05 (M13), a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who was the lead author of research on a new version of the Pap smear;

Gerald Lopez ’01 (M9), who earned his Ph.D. in computer engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and who now is in charge of support for a computer company with clients as diverse as Intel, government and university labs;

Crystal Watkins ’95 (M3), an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her master’s and Ph.D.;

Rabiah Mayas ’00 (M8), director of science and integrated strategies in the Center for the Advancement of Science Education at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago;

Kyla McMullen ’05 (M13), the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Michigan, and who now is an assistant professor at Clemson University, and;

Nwokedi C. Idika ’05 (M13), the first African-American male to earn a Ph.D. in computer science from Purdue, who now works on the staff of MIT Lincoln Labs.

As Lopez told Diverse magazine: “Meyerhoff meant a lot to me. It’s support for a lifetime. I use it as a resource even now. We help each other out a lot.”